Jose Castaneda Watch stretches to Day 274

Sep. 12, 2013

Jeff Mitchell / The Salinas Californian

Written by

Under the Dome

I’ve been known in this space to get into some fairly esoteric aspects of local government and government operations. I realize these columns maybe aren’t as sexy or entertaining as some of the other political hijinks I cover at City Hall.

Sometimes though it’s important for those of us left in the media to do the BBI’s — the boring but important stories — even if the column comes off like Charlie Brown’s teacher (waaah, waaah, waaah, etc.)

So knowing that, let me just say that if there was one single issue that I would urge you all to pay particular attention to it would be the issue of governmental transparency.

Without it, after all, you really don’t have much.

And the backbone of any such effort to keep a local government’s operations in the clear is a Sunshine Ordinance. The reference to sunshine, by the way, is taken from what late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis’ famously said about government corruption:

“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”

Fortunately for us here in Salinas, the city is working to develop such an ordinance. And the good news is that at least three members of the City Council have expressed open support for the adoption of such a local ordinance — Mayor Joe Gunter, Councilwoman Jyl Lutes and Councilwoman Gloria De La Rosa.

We have Lutes — dean of the council and the city’s vice mayor — to thank in particular for driving this issue forward.

I know that other organizations such as the influential First Amendment Coalition and the owners of this news organization, Gannett Newspapers Inc., have already voiced their full support. And as we go forward, I am hoping that my colleagues at The Monterey Herald, KSBW, Telemundo, The Monterey County Weekly, KION and others all will step up and voice their support, too.

I’m not sure when we’ll see a first draft of a Salinas Sunshine Ordinance, but I’m hoping that staff will open it up to public scrutiny and input long before it’s formally voted upon by the council.

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Key among all other elements in such a local ordinance would be an online electronic index of government documents — telling you which are public and available for inspection and which are not and why not. Also important is to engineer some real teeth for violators of the ordinance. There has to be some kind of meaningful penalty for those who would intentionally block the public’s right to know.

And, to be sure, any local sunshine ordinance will have to go out of its way to enshrine the California Public Records Act as a key, founding structural element.

Earlier this year, Gov. Jerry Brown, state Senate President Darrell Steinberg and state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, all were behind a last-minute budget bill that would have effectively gutted the CPRA.

Fortunately, their efforts were thwarted by an alert public and media organizations who worked together to keep the all-important law in one piece.

But, truthfully, issues around the CPRA have been simmering for years.

At the crux of that heartburn has been the issue of who gets stuck paying cities and counties for implementing not only the CPRA but the Brown Act, which regulates how meetings are noticed to the public, among other vital things.

The problem has been that, until recently, the state has been stuck paying for such implementation — to the tune of tens of millions — for years.

Moreover, some local governments have reportedly used that reimbursement process to gouge the state.

That’s was why Brown and associates said they tried a fly-by-night amendment to the state budget bill.

Here in Salinas, Assistant City Attorney Christopher Callahan said Wednesday that until recently the city had not sought reimbursement from the state. Now, however, Callahan said that he, Finance Director Matt Pressey and an outside consultant are studying how the city can begin receiving compensation from the state for the costs it incurs in responding to CPRA’s.

I think the city should try its best to receive some reimbursement while the door remains open to do so.

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And if you wonder what “door” I am referencing, it’s called SCA-3 and it is being sponsored by Leno. It's an initiative that will be placed before the voters in June 2014, thanks to a final Assembly vote Wednesday.

So far Leno’s efforts have received only light opposition but the California League of Cities, an organization to which Salinas belongs, has publicly expressed misgivings about making its members pay for something they have grown used to receiving reimbursements for from the state.

SCA-3 first clarifies that the state Constitution requires local agencies to comply with the CPRA and the Brown Act. It would then also ask voters to decide whether cities and counties should have pay themselves to respond to CPRAs or to administer the act or continue to seek reimbursements from the state.

My concern, naturally, is that broke, bankrupt and near-broke cities and counties like Salinas may plead that they don’t have the money to pay for this by themselves in an attempt to worm out of compliance.

After all, we did just witness the city tell a bunch of high school seniors they can’t have their homecoming parades because the city can’t afford to have cops present for traffic control and security.

That said, as a local journalist who uses the CPRA a lot, I generally have nothing but high marks for the way Salinas officials — unreimbursed as they may be — have responded to my requests.

So this also brings us full circle and explains the reason why I believe Salinas so desperately needs a local Sunshine Ordinance on the books. Such an ordinance would make it clear that being “transparent” isn’t just a fashionable choice for city officials and electeds who want to look good — it would also be the law in this city.

Jose Castañeda Watch: Day 274

Wednesday marked the 274th day that Jose Castañeda has continued to cling to both his council seat and his seat on the Alisal Union school board in apparent violation of state law.

Jeff Mitchell covers Salinas Valley politics and government. Under the Dome, an opinion column, appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday both in print and online. For quick political hits, check out Under the Dome – The Blog which is available at: www.theCalifornian.com most every day.